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Gem Guardians
The Gem Guardians were the keepers of the Gems following the destruction of the Belt of Deltora. Each of the gems were taken to the most feared places in Deltora by the Shadow Lord's seven Ak-Baba. One to the Lake of Tears, the City of the Rats, the Shifting Sands, Dread Mountain, The Maze of the Beast, The Valley of the Lost, and the Forests of Silence. Each of the gems remained close to their territory and there the guardians were either entrusted with the protection of the gems by the Shadow Lord or simply unaware of the gems presence as they guarded their own territory. The Guardians The guardian of the topaz, located within the depths of the Forests of Silence, was a golden knight by the name of Gorl, (known as "The Dark" by Jasmine). He was enchanted by the Lilies of Life before the seven tribes were united by Adin, serving as their guardian for a long time.“'When the Lilies bloom at last, and the nectar flows, only I shall drink of it. Then I shall be ruler of the seven tribes, for no one will be able to stand against, and I shall live forever.’ ‘He is mad,’ breathed Barda. ‘He speaks as if the seven tribes were never united under Adin. As though the kingdom of Deltora has never existed!’ Lief felt sick. ‘I think - I think he came before that happened,’ he whispered back. ‘He came here to find these - these Lilies of which he speaks. And they enchanted him. He has been here ever since.’” Forests of Silence. pg 99. The Topaz was located in Gorl's sword hilt. "It was a knight. A knight in golden battle armour. His breast-plate glimmered in the dimness. His helmet was crowned with golden horns. He stood, motionless, on guard, a great sword in his hand. Lief drew a sharp breath when he saw what was set into the sword's hilt. A huge, yellow stone. The Topaz" Forests of Silence. pg 97. He was destroyed by a fallen tree branch, cut loose by Jasmine. , riding on Soldeen - Ruby in hand]] The guardian of the ruby was Soldeen. He was a giant eel-like-beast who guarded the Lake of Tears. Soldeen was turned into a monster by the sorceress Thaegan. “‘You shall never have it!’ cried Thaegan, her voice cracking with fury. ‘You - who have dared to enter my lands! You who have freed one of my creatures and made another do your will! You who have killed two of my children and mocked my power! I have followed you. I have smelt you out. Now, you will see!’” The Lake of Tears. pg 105. Soldeen offered to trade the Ruby in exchange for Manus, a young Raladin boy who accompanied Lief, Barda and Jasmine to the Lake. Lief refused the offer and proceeded to attack Soldeen, defending his friend. Weakened by Lief's determination to die for a friend and the will of the Topaz, Soldeen agreed to hand over the gem to Lief. The gem was hidden in the hands of a weeping rock. “Soldeen had almost had almost reached the weeping rock. The water had worn deep cracks and holes in its smooth surface. Under the gentle light of the moon it looked like a woman with her head bent in sorrow, tears falling from between her hands. Lief’s heart thudded as he saw, cupped in one of the hands, something that did not belong there. It was a huge, dark pink gem.” The Lake of Tears. pg 102. Thaegan then appeared, ready to kill the adventurers. Thaegen was ultimately killed by Kree, who drew blood on her magic-wielding finger; her only weakness. This, in turn, broke the curse on Soldeen, D'Or and the Raladin race. Soldeen was freed, later revealed to be Nanion - the leader of the D'Or people. The guardian of the opal, dwelling within the City of the Rats was the giant serpent, Reeah. The rat-catchers of Hira (later known as The Ra-Kacharz of Noradz) snuck him into the city and fed him rats until he was big and strong. He eventually took control of the city, driving out the Hiran people. Later, he was given the Opal by the Shadow Lord and was tasked with protecting it. Reeah talked to Lief telepathically upon the trio's entry to the city, claiming that the power of the opal imbedded into his crown told him of their arrival. He tried to convince Lief to remove the Belt since the he feared the ruby. Lief resisted and outwitted Reeah, provoking an attack. During the battle, Lief was almost killed but was saved by the bottled nectar of the Lilies of Life. Reeah was defeated by Jasmine, who slit his throat. The guardian of the lapis-lazuli, hidden in the centre of the Shifting Sands, is the Hive. Residing in the middle of a volcano, the Hive is a swarm of bee-like creatures. The Hive’s creatures cause sand storms, shifting the sands, and collecting anything in its path. Gold, jewels, glass, bleached-white bones make up the structure of their home - a giant pyramid of death that houses their young and queen. When the lapis-lazuli was dropped in the sands, it was taken to the Hive and used as a part of the pyramid. Lief descended down into the Hive with a smoking torch. He remembered advice from his encounter with Queen Bee which gave him the idea of calming them with smoke. It worked. Lief found the lapis-lazuli “carefully wedged into place, supporting the roof of an as yet empty cell.”The Shifting Sands. pg 114. He realised that removing the gem would cause the structure to collapse and bring the Hive’s fury upon him, so he used Jasmine’s small wooden bird as a replacement in order to secure the lapis-lazuli. The Guardian of the Great Emerald. Gellick. The Guardian of the Great Amethyst. The Glus. The Guardian of the Great Diamond. The Guardian. In the anime, some of the Gem Guardians' fates are a bit different. Gorl's, Soldeen's, Thaegan's (initially), the Glus' and Fardeep's fates still occur. Reeah survives his initial encounter with the group, Thaegan was revived two more times and eventually she finds peace freeing herself from evil, and the Hive suffered a bigger loss than in the books: Jasmine lit some of the bees that made up the hive on fire and it screamed in agony as it burned. Also in the anime the character Oacus is introduced and is very similar to the Gem Guardians, yet does not function in such a way, being a replacement for Thaegan and a filler character in total. While the fate of death was shared by the guardians Gorl, Reeah, and Thaegan other members have more ambiguous ends. Gellick for example was turned into a tree, but as a tree is still a living being it could be said that Gellick is still alive. One could also argue against Gorl's case as he was simply a specter of darkness to begin with and had died long ago meaning that his death was outdated and his defeat was his soul moving on. Also the Hive and the Glus were never actually taken care of as permanent problems, with the protagonists simply managing to escape from their clutches as opposed to defeating them, although they did wound the Hive's collection by stealing from it and in the anime a large amount of the bees were lit a flame with a blister. The Shifting Sands as it were was simply a dangerous location and thus couldn't be killed and can only be slightly argued over being a guardian at all. Soldeen and Fardeep were both enchanted to be villains and were both freed from evil/reformed upon the gems returning to the belt of Deltora. Trivia * Though it's never stated in the books, Gorl was probably a Jalis since the armour he wore was similar to Greel's. Greel was a Jalis Knight who Adin fought during his quest to gather the gems for the Belt of Deltora. * Interestingly the Gem Guardians all parralel some recurring tropes and character generalizations in the Fantasy Genres. Gorl is a Knight, Thaegan is a sorceress/witch which are the two most recurring accounts of characters in the Fantasy Genre; Reeah is a snake, Soldeen is a sea monster, both of which are considered sources of fear and symbols of evil or obstacles of over come in western literature; Fardeep and Soldeen are cursed to be evil rather than actually being evil which fufils requirements often done for anti-heroes; the Glus, Reeah and Gellick are abnormally large animals that are also highly intelligent and powerful foes; the Hive shares its name and sake with the concept of a Hive minded species, which is a species of a multiple concious entity split between more than one body, yet in this case it is more akin to the bees that it is based off and it is never fully revealed if the Hive is infact a hive minded species of bee; finally the Shifting Sands is a location that must be overcome in a Man vs. Nature situation. References Category:Monsters Category:Antagonists